Two Sides of a Coin

I recently finished reading HOT by Julia Harper.  It’s a contemporary romance, complete with a sexy lawman, a good-intentioned possible criminal and a mystery to be solved.  The style is typical to that of the chick lit/contemporary genre, with humorous asides, unusual comic relief characters and just-this-side-of-farfetched events.  If I didn’t already know, I would never have guessed Julia Harper is Elizabeth Hoyt.

As anyone who has read this blog in the last few months knows, I am a big fan of Ms. Hoyt.  I love her historicals and she has a permanent place on my bookshelf.  When I told her I was going to be reading HOT soon, she mentioned that some people who knew she wrote under both names didn’t care for the contemporary voice she used.  Which, of course, got me thinking.

Lots of authors write under multiple names.  Some do so to explore a different genre, a new publisher or just a new voice.  One of the most famous examples of this being Stephen King and the Bachman books. King was experimenting to see if his books were selling based on his name or his talent.  Personally, I prefer several of the Bachman books over later King novels, but his voice is pretty obvious in all of them.

But Julia Harper’s book was a completely different novel from her Legend of Four Soldiers series under Elizabeth Hoyt.  Even knowing the author is the same person, the books have a completely individualistic feel.  This is one of the few times when a different name seemed to denote a different author with a different style.  It’s hard enough to be a successful bestselling author, but to be two is just amazing!

Nicole